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The Environment

GM Crops: Good News, Bad News, and Some Fixes

The USDA and National Institute of Food and Agriculture do have a bunch of suggestions on how to deal with insect resistance, many of which would also help protect vulnerable birds and non-target insects. As follows…

Truth-Value and Use-Value: The Case of the Always-Changing Climate

My point here is simply to highlight that disagreements about “facts” are often less about their accuracy than their use-value - that is, what would happen if a lot of people accepted these facts as true. And thus we have a whole industry of scribblers and pundits who provide “context” to uncontested facts. Of course, such context comes with its own truth-value and use-value.

Climate Change and Agriculture: The Case of Pests

…Ditto the development of increasingly resilient crops, which are better at enduring the slings and arrows of outrageous climate. As long observed, healthier plants are less vulnerable to insect infestations.

Moving Forward on Climate Change, Part VIII: Looking Back

This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part VIII: Climate Change: Moral Communities and Divisive Rhetoric  Climate Change: Labeling People and Framing the Issues  How Not to Talk to a Climate Change Skeptic, Part VI  How Not to Talk to a Climate Change Skeptic, Part V  Straw Men and Their Variations, Part II: Comment on 'The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels'  How Not to Talk to a Climate Change Skeptic, Part IV 

Moving Forward on Climate Change, Part IV: Looking Back

This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part IV: Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part IIIb: Reduce Black Carbon  Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part IIIa: Reduce Emissions of Short-Lived Pollutants  Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part II: Energy Efficiency  Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part I  Staying within a 1.5° C Rise by 2100 is Still Possible Plus the Obligatory Warnings 

Moving Forward on Climate Change, Part III: Looking Back

This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part III Concerned Scientists, Climate Change and History as the Context of Trust Concerned Scientists, Building Trust, and Climate Change Explicit Persuasive Intent and Concerned Scientists Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part IIId: Reduce Methane Emissions from Anthropogenic Sources Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part IIIc: Reduce Wetland Methane Emissions

Moving Forward on Climate Change, Part II: Looking Back

This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part II: States of the Nation: Red States/Blue States and Environmental Policy, Part IV States of the Nation: Red States/Blue States and Environmental Policy, Part III States of the Nation: Red States/Blue States and Environmental Policy, Part II States of the Nation: Red States, Blue States and Environmental Policy - Part I Concerned Scientists, Climate Change and Why Some People Still Resist 

Moving Forward on Climate Change, Part I: Looking Back

This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part I: A Framework for Finding Common Ground on Climate Change Psychology and Politics, Part IV: System Justification and Climate Change Psychology and Politics, Part II: Truth and Research Agendas First Step in Helping Farmers Help the Environment: Listen, Don’t Tell, Part II Environmental Politics The Science Behind the Headlines, Part II: Is the 2°C Target Beyond Our Reach?

A Framework for Finding Common Ground on Climate Change

“Members of the public with the highest degrees of science literacy and technical reasoning capacity were not the most concerned about climate change. Rather, they were the ones among whom cultural polarization was greatest.” Kahan, Peters et al (2012)

Psychology and Politics, Part IV: System Justification and Climate Change

…survey evidence showing the number of Americans endorsing anthropogenic climate change fell during the Great Recession, between 2007 and 2009. The authors' basic theory is that when people sense economic threat, they are more likely to value order and stability, which motivates them to justify the existing economic system and downplay evidence suggesting the system itself is a problem.